Henry Grace a Dieu (Great Harry) by Louie da fly - FINISHED - Scale 1:200 - Repaired after over 50 yrs of neglect

[Louie da fly]

I agree, Dick. However, it will be a while before I'm confronted by this problem and I've decided not to worry too much about it till then (the problems I have to resolve at the moment are quite enough for the time being). I'll be re-using as much of the original upper-work planking as I can, but there'll be a certain amount of new stuff I'll have to add, and the whole of the hull below the water line needs new planking.

 

What I have now is walnut, rather than the "Queensland walnut" I used when I first built her. I think I'll be trying to match the timbers as closely as possible; the overall goal is to repair her to be as she would have been at the time, rather than to show up the repairs. The main deck is bamboo, made from old blinds. I may be able to get something similar. If not, I have a piece of bamboo I'll probably cut into planks for the upper deck. 

 

I've added the extra frames I needed. I had to reverse engineer frames, to be the right size to fit inside the existing planking (instead of making the frames first and then putting the planking on afterwards). The second-last frame is a bit skewiff so I'll have to undo and re-glue it, properly square.

I've marked where the tops of the upper deck-beams will be on each of the new frames, and now I have to decide exactly what to do next. I'll be putting beams in, of course, but I may cut the frames off above the beams and add false frames where they're visible, in some wood more appropriate than balsa.  

 

Steven

Edited January 11, 2019 by Louie da fly

[BANYAN]

Missed the start of this one Steven,  will be following with interest.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Baker]

hello Steven,

If I see it correctly on the photo. I think your first frame on the upper right side is not in line with the rest.

 

 

 

[Louie da fly]

Thanks, Pat.

 

Patrick, I'll check this out. You may well be right, but photos can often be misleading.

 

Steven

[druxey]

Quite the reconstruction effort, Steven! I hadn't realized that the model was quite so small.

[Louie da fly]

Thanks, Druxey. Yes, it's 1:200. You can blame Bjorn Landstrom (sorry, can't add the correct accents to his name) - I directly copied it from the 1:200   reconstruction side view in his book The Ship. When I built it in 1970-odd, I carved three people out of bamboo to inhabit the ship. They were pretty tiny. Sadly, they got lost along the way along with many of the other nice detailed bits I made. Still, 1:200 pales into insignificance compared with the guys who routinely make ships at 1:350. I have no idea how they do it.

 

Patrick, you were right; the frame was out of line. I've fixed it and moved on somewhat, putting in cross-beams which will support the upper deck. This is all a bit rough and ready - I have yet to work out exactly the run of the deck - the black lines are where I think the deck will run - and of the hull below the water line. Which is part of the reason for using balsa - it's so easy to work and to "bodge" if it's  bit out.

 

 

Still lots of work to be done, but slowly making progress.

 

Steven

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by Louie da fly

[Baker]

I'm glad I could help you.

greetings Patrick

[Louie da fly]

Thanks everyone for the likes.

 

Patrick, I may still have to adjust the frames. The upper part of the new frame second from the front seems to have a slightly different angle to the others, and may have to be packed out a bit. I'll be better able to sort this out when I replace the upper planking. 

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

Changed the frames a bit, and worked out the approximate line of the upper deck. Starting to look better, but now I have to put in the deck beams and adjust them to get a smooth line. Because I'm fixing up something existing there's a lot of ad hoc work to be done, and I'm making the deck beams from balsa because it's much easier to trim and adjust by trial and error with than a harder timber.

And I've started repairing the superstructure in readiness to put the sides back in place - a lot of minor breaks in the planking and particularly the little arched gunports (for small arms). Cutting a small piece of walnut sheet the same thickness as the planking 

  

putting it in the gap;

and gluing it in place so it overlaps into the arch opening on each side. Taking note of the next gap to be repaired;

 

And gluing a strip of walnut in place to fill the gaps.

 

 Photos of this scale and definition bring it home to me that at 17 years old I had a lot to learn about model ship building. But it's nice to be restoring something that's both a very sentimental possession and a record of my own earlier life. 

 

Steven

Edited February 2, 2019 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

After a rather frustrating session with the dromon build, I thought I'd take a bit of a break and work on the Great Harry as a relief.

 

Just fixing up the broken arched gunports bit by bit. I've had to reinforce them at the back in places because they're so fragile. I sometimes impress myself, though - when I was 17 I'd thought of reinforcing these runs of arches with paper glued to the back of the wood. I think that's pretty cool for a 17 year old.

Still broken in places so I've got more to do, particularly at the after end of these panels.

 

I thought of also fixing up some of the arches that I made the wrong size way back when, but I think this would go against the original idea of restoring it to the way it would have been if I'd repaired it properly at the time. (One exception - I've given the hull a "rounder" shape than I'd originally done, on the basis that if the Mary Rose had been found at the time I would have done it that way). 

 

And I've glued in over-size balsa deck beams which will be trimmed down to make a smooth line for the upper deck (Balsa's really great for this kind of work). All a bit rough and ready and not square at the moment. That will come with the trimming, and the roughness will be hidden inside the hull - as it was when I first built her.

 

Not sure if I'm going to camber these beams - I didn't know about that at the time and probably wouldn't have bothered if I had.

 

Steven

Edited February 26, 2019 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

More progress. I held the old superstructure planking in place against the frames and marked black lines where the line of the deck intersects with them. 

and trimmed the beams to the height of the deck, using a thin batten to get the line of the deck right. 

 

A couple of frames were a bit wobbly because they were only fixed to the keel, so I glued them to the remaining hull planking to make them a bit more secure.

One of the problems with the original model was that the balsa frames were so thick they overlapped the gunports from the inside, so you could see the balsa through the ports. Best solution I've been able to come up with is to cut notches in the frames where they cross the gunports, and paint them black inside so they're somewhat less obvious.

 A bit of repair - the arched doorway under the sterncastle got broken, so I've glued a bit of walnut in the gap and will trim it to shape to hide the damage.

 

That's all for now.

 

Steven

 

 

 

[BANYAN]

Some good progress made there Steven.  I will be quite interested in how yo age these 'filler repairs', have you any ideas on that yet?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

Thanks everybody for the likes.

 

Pat, here's the "filler" for the doorway trimmed and coloured. (Actually I had to make another one - the first one just wasn't up to standard). I roughened the surface of the wood to help absorb the colour better, and used black acrylic paint very heavily thinned with water to do the weathering. When I took it out into the sunlight the colour value wasn't quite right - it should have had a little more red in it - but on such a small piece it will still be acceptable.

Still needs sanding to get rid of the shine from the glue.

 

To make it easier to attach the new bit I glued a thin piece of wood across the back of the gap so it had something to fix itself to. The white "smear" to the left of it is where I glued together a crack in the break of the aftercastle.

I'd previously tried darkening it with tea, but didn't have all that  much success.

When I do the bigger patches I'll have to be more careful about the colour matching, but at the moment i'm pretty happy with it.

 

Steven 

Edited March 4, 2019 by Louie da fly

[BANYAN]

That looks pretty good Steven; as you say at this scale it is very acceptable.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

Thanks for the likes.

 

Pat, I think it's ok for what it is. I've done another similar repair since then and the colour is rather better. Just needs a bit of practice. The larger additions are going to be the big test.

 

Just doing fiddly little repairs at the moment - I want to finish them all before I start on the big stuff. The side planking has split over the years and has had to be glued back together here and there. Here I've got the planking clamped to the (new) frames with clothespegs. As the hull is now narrower at the stern, the planking has to curve further inward than it was in the original model. This affects the vertical curve of the planking to a small degree, but it doesn't seem to have made enough difference to be noticeable.

 In the meantime, I discovered and glued back a bit of the curved top timber of the foretop. There's a remnant of the top rail as well. Note how thin it is compared to a match. I certainly had high aspirations when I was 17, even if I didn't have the knowledge I have now. By the way, the black blob at the left-hand end of the rail is the back of one of the (decorative?) shields that seem to have been scattered all over the Great Harry, even in the tops.

 

Steven

[druxey]

Pretty ambitious and accomplished for 17, I'd say, Steven!

[Louie da fly]

Thanks for the likes, and thanks Druxey for the (very welcome) comment.

 

More fiddly stuff. Gluing backing pieces behind the existing planking, for support when new planks are added.

  

Steven

Edited March 6, 2019 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

More fiddly stuff.  

 

Fixing up breaks in the upper works - mending a broken wale and a couple of arches

Reinforcements from behind

 

And adding false decks to support the cannons that will poke out of the arched gunports.

   

Repairing a break in the mainyard

 

 

Perhaps a little slow, but I'll get there in the end.

 

Steven 

 

Edited March 17, 2019 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

Added a panel of planking. (The "planks" are carved into the surface of the panel - I've decided to do it the same way I did it back in the day - at least above the waterline).

 

The panel sticks out somewhat from the original at the forward end, so I then carved it flush with the existing planking. Once that was done I replaced a piece of the wale that had broken off. A little rough and ready I'm afraid, because of the state of the existing bits. I'll have to do a bit of tidying up once the glue's dried.

 

Steven 

Edited March 17, 2019 by Louie da fly

[BANYAN]

You're doing a nice job on those repairs Steven; and quite rapid progress

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited March 18, 2019 by BANYAN

[Louie da fly]

1 hour ago, BANYAN said:

You're doing a nice job on those repairs Steven; and quite rapid progress

 

You think? From this end it seems to be taking forever 😫

 

Steven

[BANYAN]

Ah its all relative   see PM

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

A new panel in place, and because the mended wale in the previous post came out a bit crooked, I've added a small piece of wood to straighten out the wale.

 

Trimmed the wale to shape.

Added another panel:

And the planking following the curve of the stern (thought I'd never get here!)

The colour of the wood is a bit of an issue, as I'd expected. It's not that far off the original, but enough to be noticed.

 

Some of the joins might be a bit too obvious, since I'm doing it as panels rather than individual planks. I'm hoping this will become much less obvious when I solve the problem of the colour. Also at least one of the joins will be partly hidden when a new length of wale is added to the broken one below the top row of gunports.

 

Still plenty of fiddly stuff to do, but it's nice putting a bit of external shape on the hull.

 

Steven

Edited March 18, 2019 by Louie da fly

[druxey]

If you are worried about the joints showing, there's always automotive putty.... We'll never tell!

[Louie da fly]

Druxey, I'm shocked at you, of all people 😁

 

Steven

[druxey]

Is it a case of "Do as I say, but not as I do."?  

[Louie da fly]

More fiddly stuff. 

 

Almost complete on the port side above the waterline. Just a little to add beside the gunport, then repair the two broken wales, and it's pretty much done. Many of the gunports were open on the original, but I never solved the problem of making the guns. So rather than make lots and lots of gun barrels, I'm just going to make a few to go in the waist where they're visible, and have the ports closed.

New planking panel on the starboard side. Because it's both short and wide (and a little thicker than the original planking) I had to peg it very thoroughly to get it to follow the curve of the hull.

And yet more reinforcements at the rear of the superstructure to support the repairs to the rows of arches for the arquebuses and swivel guns.

More to come in the fullness of time . . .

 

Steven

 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

More filling in gaps:

 

Port lid for the aft larboard gunport

Filling in the last gap on the starboard side upper works:

 

taking the larboard planking down to the waterline, creating the aft gunport of the lower deck

 

Filling in the final gaps on the starboard side upper works:

Repairing breakages takes quite a bit more work than building from scratch - apart from anything else, you have to fill in strangely shaped gaps caused by the breakages. Also (at least in this case) the thickness of the wood you're using to repair the damage is almost always different from the original. So once it's in place you need to carve it down flush with the original planking. Or the break is along an angle so you have to trim the replacement piece on an angle so it'll fit in. Or both.

 

Still, it's nice to see it all coming together. Still have to carve out the arches in the infilled areas, and  . . . and . . . and . . .

 

Steven

 

[Louie da fly]

Thanks everybody for the likes (and comments).

 

More tidying up.

Superstructure - cutting out the arches in the infill bits and adding the rough cut of the double wale above the green section:

The repair to the starboard side of the superstructure is pretty much finished.

 

Still a bit to do on the port side. Adding the end of the wale above the yellow section and trimming the double wale. Still needs a bit of shaping and smoothing off.

Cut out the port lids.

Main hull -adding the second wale on the port side.

(While I want to keep the model as close to the way it should have been had I finished it back in the day, I can't help trying to make the finish of the repairs a little better than the original.)

 

Almost complete on the port side. Still one or more panels to add on the starboard.

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

More panels of planking added, this time on the starboard side:

Third last panel - firstly glued the forward end in place (not photographed), then when that was dry, pulled it in and glued it in place against the rest of the frames. Nowhere to put a clamp, so I used cotton to hold the end in position.

Infill panel to bring everything in line. Same technique; glue forward end in place then once dry, glue and clamp the rest.

And now, the final panel of planking above the water line.

Unfortunately I slightly miscalculated the run of the last panel and there was a very narrow gap between it and the previous one, so I shaved a sliver of walnut down and slid it into the gap (long red oval). Also, I'd left a hole at the bottom of the previous panel, mistakenly thinking that was where a gunport was supposed to be (small red circle within the red oval). The real gunport is in the small circle on the right.

So then I carved a small bit of walnut and put it in the "gunport" gap. I have yet to trim this and the "sliver" down flush with the planking.

I discovered that the keel was too low for the slot at the bottom of the mast to go over it, so I had to add an extra bit to the top of the keel. Perhaps it never fitted, even when I built it 40 years ago.

 

And because back then I had no idea of the function of the wedges around the mast and just put something in that looked like them because they were in the pictures, there's a gap between the mast and the hole in the deck. I think I'll have to make new wedges and do it properly.

Steven 

Edited March 28, 2019 by Louie da fly